2097, 1st of November.
In the small town called Baheys, located in the northern isles of Britannia, a loud siren sounded. It was early in the morning, and nobody knew what the noise was about. The inhabitants came out of their tiny houses and walked onto the road, looking for a chat with their neighbours. So did a young man, who had taken the day off work. Dredged out of sleep, the twenty-three-year-old Daniel, or Dan for short, dragged himself to the bathroom.
He took a glance into the mirror and noticed that he had a red mark on his cheek. Rubbing against it he knew it had to be from his pillow, which left a pressure marking. After washing and brushing his scruffy light brown hair, which only barely covered his eye brows, he changed into a white shirt and a black hoody-jacket.
He still wasn't quite awake yet, he wanted to go out of house but noticed that he did not wear shoes and still had his pyjama trousers on. Embarrassed, he hurried back inside and put on his blue, old, work jeans and his brown winter shoes. Finally, he grabbed his house keys and walked out. A cold breeze whistled past his face, his breath became misty within in.
Walking on the road, he noticed that his entire neighbourhood was outside, talking and arguing about the loud noise, which sounded through the entire town. They already figured out that it was the fire station's siren, making them believe that something happened. However, why was it still sounding then? Usually it would only be for the first few minutes but, by now, it has been almost an hour already.
The young, tired man greeted some of the people on the road and hoped to find out more, however it was then that he noticed a faint voice in the distance. Around him were three older women, who turned their eyes up the street. Wondering what they were looking at, he turned around and saw an old man. He walked very slowly and seemed to be limping, with his hoarse voice releasing faint groans of pain, forming small clouds of mist.
"H-Help me..."
Daniel heard the man's voice and yelled, "Are you alright, Mister?"
He noticed that the women around him slowly backed off, somehow scared. He didn't understand their reaction, believing that it would be better to help the man.
"Release me... Help me," it echoed in his head.
The man came closer and Dan once again had to ask, "Mister, are you alright? What do you need help with?"
He walked closer to him, just in case he didn't have the strength to ask for help, but he soon noticed that something was very off about the old man. His eyes were grey, and his teeth were drenched in blood. There was a hole in his black trousers, on the left leg. Blood was flowing out of a large cavity in his leg, and quickly Daniel noticed that this man was possibly no longer in need of help.
However, the voice in his head became louder as the old man got closer, while he was also able to hear a groaning sound. His head began to ache, the pleading echo confused him, making him step back and run to his car. Turning around he saw three more limping people coming from down the road, and running neighbours, going back into their houses. Out of panic he opened the back of his car and grabbed a garden shovel out of it. He worked at a garden centre, specifically as the gardener of it.
Looking deeply at the shovel in his palms, he felt a tap on his shoulder, followed by a bubbly breath. He jumped, turned around and hit the man in the knee with the shovel, thus tripping him.
As the body fell on the ground, Daniel heard a scream of pain in his head. He didn't mean to hurt anyone, he was just scared and acted out of reflex. As he was about to bend down to help, the man flailed his arms towards him and scratched his right cheek, causing Daniel to stumble back.
Sitting so close to the man's face he now saw that he was mistaken. The pale, blue skin and the blood flowing out of its mouth, he knew that this was not the face of a living man. Despite that, the voice in his head was still present, actually there are more now. The limping people from down the street came closer to him, and so did the voices in his head get louder.
Pleading and begging, the voices hurt his head and scared him. Panicked, he pushed himself back towards his door, crawling inside before closing and locking the door behind him. Releasing a sigh, he felt safe now, but that quickly changed. The door had steamed glass windows, to be able to see who was on the other side, in this case the limping people. Their hands smashed against the door, leaving marks of blood, frightening the young man. He screamed and ran into the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, he was now more awake than ever and cleaned the scratch on his cheek. Its sting made him flinch at first, but it made him realize that this wasn't just a bad dream.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
There really were seemingly dead bodies smashing against his door, and his head ache got worse. Unsure of what to do, he ran into the kitchen and got hold of a phone, trying to call the police or a hospital, but the lines were down. Throwing his phone against the table, Daniel stepped over to his cupboard and took some aspirin, hoping it would help him calm down. The cupboard was right above a block of sharp cooking knifes, his eyes were almost magnetically drawn to them. The thought crossed his mind that he had to protect himself, what if those people were what he knew as zombies. He had seen the concept on TV but believed it wasn't possible, however he quickly went through his options and drew one of the knifes.
Sliding his finger against the blade, and accidentally cutting himself with it, an image went through his tangled up mind, while watching the blood drip from his finger. Stabbing one of them with the knife through the head, drops of blood splashing against his hand or face, and the thought of possibly killing a person. It was too much. Quivering in fear, the knife dropped out of his hand before digging itself into the wooden floor.
He chocked and held his hand in front of his mouth. His stomach was grumbling as he hurried to the toilet. Retching noises sounded through the house, until eventually he left the bathroom with a pale face, shaking, leaning against a wall. Thinking through his options, he remembered that the zombies usually were attracted to meat. He went into his kitchen, and looked through his fridge and found a frozen chicken breast, "That should do!"
Standing in front of the door, with his shovel in his left hand and a chicken breast, from his fridge, in his right. Putting down the meat in front of the door, he unlocked it and let the people inside. As it slowly opened up, they bent down onto the chicken and bit at it. Shocked, Daniel now had proof that they had to be something similar to zombies. No normal human, who needs help, would try to bite at a raw, frozen chicken. Although he now had a reason to act, he still merely stood there and watched, trembling in fear, listening to the echoes in his mind.
"Please help us," "Release us," they still screamed within him, leaving him to question his decisions. Were they human or not?
They spoke to him, asked him for help, and yet they still appeared to be mindless zombies.
When they finally gave up trying to chew on the frozen chicken breast, their colourless eyes turned to him. They stood up, lifting their hands towards him, stepping closer as they groaned in hunger. Meanwhile the young man found himself in a conflict with his morale understanding, he wanted to defend himself but also didn't want to hurt human beings. In the end he let go of the shovel in his hands and dropped onto his knees, with his hands over his head.
Suddenly loud shots rang past his ears and blood sprinkled onto his clothes, making him shiver in fear. He didn't understand what just happened, and while he should be happy that he is safe, he is left with the question of 'who was responsible for this?' and why the voices in his head didn't stop.
Screams of agony roared wildly within his skull, it pained him to listen to them. Before him were the people who he believed the voices belonged to, but their heads had been pierced by the bullet, leaving their bodies lifeless. If it really was like on the TV, then they should really be dead now. Then why did he still hear them screaming?
"Dan! Are you alright?" a familiar person, near the door, shouted.
It was his colleague from work, Leo. He was his senior who lived nearby and was also a gardener. Now, he stood in front of the door and saw his friend on the floor, surrounded by corpses, crying his heart out. Clicking the safety on the handgun, he lifted Daniel up and assisted him in walking. He had a jeep outside and thus wanted to lift his friend inside and drive away. However, with the noise of the gunshots came many other zombie-like people, blocking the road. Leo opened the door behind the drivers seat and sat his friend down inside, while he unlocked the safety and began to shoot their pursuers. He shot aiming for the head but missed and hit other body areas, the pressure made him sweat. With each hit, the screams worsened, it tormented Daniel. It felt like his head was about to split at any moment.
Leo still didn't manage to hit the head and went through an entire magazine already. He attempted to hastily reload the gun as they got closer and closer. Some crawling on the floor, some limping and others walking slowly. Shaking under pressure, he dropped the fresh magazine onto the road and panicked. He wanted to bend down and pick it up, but he was scared that it might take too long. Looking behind him, at his colleague in the car, he noticed that Daniel was whining in pain. Finally deciding to man up, he bent down to grab the magazine but it was too late, a tap on on his back scared him, making him tumble onto his back. Seeing the pale, bloody body of the zombie, he pushed himself backwards.
Having given up on hope, he prayed and whispered to his friend, "I'm sorry Dan, I really wanted to help you, but I failed. Please forgive me."
In that very moment, a radiant light dropped down from the skies, in front of them, which was followed by a loud howl, echoing through every house and road nearby.